“Music was always there for me as a kind of rhythm—getting in rhythm, having rhythm.”
P arisian Blue, executed in 2012, constructs a lusciously vibrant surface driven by an internal rhythm as Stanley Whitney revels in the creation of a new visual symphony evocative of an unconstrained jazz improvisation. Squares in multiple tonalities of cerulean, ultramarine and parisian blue, phthalo green, with cadmium red and orange, draw attention to the pulsing playful interplay existing within each of the elements. Aided by its monumental format, presented in Whitney’s iconic square canvas, Parisian Blue is a unique window into the impeccable technique of the artist. The present work’s grand scale replicates the advancements of Mark Rothko, creating an experience that inhabits the viewer through an unrivaled confrontation with the spiritual presence of color. Carrying the expectation of a symphony for our viewing pleasure, Parisian Blue is an unwavering harmonic structure inviting the playful gaze within and across the unstructured blocks of color constituting its Metricas l whole.
Parisian Blue conveys endless movement with its schematic format of tantalizing color and form. Combining swaths of bright color within a grid-like pattern, Whitney punctuates the fluidity of painterly motion, as elemental pauses counterbalance the melodic flow. Grounded in the unsystematized relationship between vibrant blocks of color, Parisian Blue invites the viewer into the exploration of their symphonic balance. Polychromatic brushstrokes encased in an unyielding grid, the present work opposes the traditionally calculated approach of field colorists in Abstract Expressionism, as the artist chooses each color by chance after seeing how it relates to the neighboring blocks of hues. A work meant to be experienced, Parisian Blue is a condensed space of jovial expression, exploring the inapprehensible boundaries of chromatic configuration.
I follow the paintings wherever they take me. If the painting goes out the door, I follow it out the door; if it goes out the window, I follow it out the window.
A contemporary master of painting, Stanley Whitney’s creations grace the most prominent collects ions including the Solomon Guggenheim Museum; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Long Museum; and the Palazzo Magnani, with recent solo exhibitions in Gagosian, Rome; Lisson Gallery, London, and New York; Galerie Nordenhake in Berlin and Sweden, among many other venues. Recently, Whitney was honored with a solo exhibition at the Palazzo Tiepolo Passi in Venice in correspondence with the 2022 Venice Biennale.
